The Wireless ISP Association welcomed revised rules for over-the-air reception devices approved by the FCC Thursday (see 2101070068). The decision is “a major win for WISPs and the customers they serve,” the group said Friday, after initially declining to comment. “It will facilitate the placement of broadband-only ‘hubs’ and ‘relay antennas’ -- pizza box-sized technology -- on homes, multi-tenant buildings and vertical structures, providing a potent tool for WISPs and other small innovators to grow broadband deployment beyond past limits imposed by the former rule.”

The FCC Office of Economics and Analytics found a mobile digital divide and urged further study, in a white paper in Thursday’s Daily Digest. Rural areas tend to be more reliant on non-Wi-Fi mobile technology and get slower connections, the paper said. “Counties with higher minority populations are more likely to use older mobile technologies and experience slower speeds,” it said: “Counties with older populations are more likely to use mobile technologies and are more likely to have slower speeds. Counties with larger households are more likely to use WiFi and also have faster WiFi.”

The Wireless ISP Association said Tuesday it acquired the Multifamily Broadband Council (MBC), which focuses on multifamily dwelling units. WISPA and MBC partnered on WISPA’s annual show in Las Vegas this year. Some “30% of Americans live in MDUs, and millions more work in office buildings,” said a WISPA news release. “Although MDUs represent dense concentrations of potential customers for broadband providers, they also present unique practical and policy challenges to deployment. Competition for this market is often frustrated by telecommunications incumbents, whose practices can make competition more challenging in the MDU space.” MBC will dissolve at the end of this year and be folded into WISPA.

Next year will likely bring more North American "power users" of broadband who consume 1 TB or more of data per month, with the group reaching 10%-11% of subscribers, a 14% increase over 2020, OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau blogged Wednesday. He said such power users could become as high as 13%-14% while pandemic lockdowns remain: A conservative estimate of average monthly broadband use in North America in 2021 would be 430-445 GB per subscriber, a 10% increase, but monthly averages already are going past 480 GB and could hit 500 GB. The executive said those numbers likely will recede after pandemic conditions ease.

Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., led a letter with 17 other senators Monday urging Senate leaders to “provide full funding” to implement the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (S-1822) and reimburse U.S. telecom companies that replace suspect network equipment, per the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4998). The FCC and supportive lawmakers sought $1.6 billion-$1.8 billion for HR-4998 funding and $65 million to implement S-1822 (see 2009140062). Commissioners vote Thursday on an order to set up the reimbursement program that HR-4998 established (see 2011190059). The “rip and replace” reimbursements HR-4998 set up are “a national security imperative,” Wicker and the other senators wrote. “Fully funding this program is essential to protecting the integrity of our communications infrastructure and the future viability of our digital economy at large.” The $65 million for S-182 is needed to “ensure more accurate broadband maps and better stewardship over the millions of dollars the federal government awards each year to support broadband deployment,” the senators said. “Without these maps, the government risks overbuilding existing networks, duplicating funding already provided, and leaving communities unserved.” The House-passed FY 2021 appropriations bill for the FCC (HR-7617) included $65 million for S-1822 funding (see 2007080064). The Senate Appropriations Committee proposes $15 million (see 2011100041).

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated digital divide issues, and more focus needs to be put on items such as better pedagogy for remote education and the lack of broadband affordability for many, speakers said Thursday at an Axios broadband event. NCTA President Michael Powell said the number of Americans without broadband availability could dramatically decline over the next five to 10 years with proper government support. But economics is also a hindrance, and low-income access efforts like NCTA's K-12 Bridge to Broadband program need to be a higher societal imperative, he said. Beyond connectivity, more work is needed on adapting educational curricula to remote learning and teaching students digital skills, he said. Without such efforts, even with more universal connectivity, "you're still going to get suboptimal results," Powell said. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said lack of granular data about who has broadband is "frustrating," but it's already well established that 77 million people in the U.S. lack adequate home fixed broadband connections, large numbers of people in urban areas are unconnected, and communities of color are persistently "on the wrong side of the digital divide," with particularly high rates of adults lacking broadband connections. Starks said "help is on the way" in tackling rural access issues, but broadband affordability and digital literacy -- particularly with seniors often not realizing the must-have nature of broadband -- are also key problems. Expand the E-rate program, he said. Plinio Ayala, CEO of IT career training nonprofit Per Scholas, said artificial intelligence will disrupt industries such as hospitality, retail and transportation, and the pandemic accelerated that. He said workforce development programs like his and others need more private and public sector investment. Comcast said Thursday it was giving Per Scholas $1 million to scale its operations. Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of online educational software firm DreamBox, said 15 million U.S. students are falling behind educationally because they lack "persistent, consistent" broadband access. Treat broadband like a utility, with sustained funding for access and devices in schools, she said.

A 45% spike in Thanksgiving Day broadband consumption tracked with holiday suspension of Zoom conferencing limits, emailed OpenVault Monday. Zoom lifted the 40-minute limit on free Zoom accounts for all meetings for an 18-hour period “so your family gatherings don’t get cut short.” Average broadband consumption per subscriber was 15.59 GB on Thanksgiving vs. 10.77 GB in 2019. The usage was 9.7% above that on the previous Thursday, it said.

Starting Jan. 1, Comcast will extend its 1.2 TB monthly plan, currently in the western and central U.S., across the rest of its footprint, it told us Monday. Customers who exceed that won't be throttled or capped but can either pay overage charges of $10 for 50 GB buckets of data, at a maximum of $100 per month, or subscribe to an unlimited option of $30 a month additional for customers with their own modems, or $11 a month when bundled with lease of a Comcast modem for $14 monthly. Comcast said any January and February overage charges will be credited on customers' bills, and subscribers will get a courtesy overage month for the year. It said the purpose is to put more of the network costs on the shoulders of the heaviest data users: 5% of its users account for 20% of network usage, and median residential data usage is 308 GB.

AT&T supports concerns raised by Southern Co., CTIA and others (see 2011170040) on the potential for harmful interference from uncontrolled very-low-power devices fixed service microwave systems in the 6 GHz band, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai indicated Wednesday he won't seek a Dec. 10 vote (see 2011180065).

U.S. cable and wireline phone providers had the biggest jump in broadband additions last quarter since 2009, reported Leichtman Research Group Wednesday. The top 96% of providers acquired 1.53 million net additional subscribers vs. a pro forma 615,000 a year ago. Cable companies gained 1.3 million, the third consecutive quarter of 1 million-plus additions, vs. 830,000 a year ago; telcos added 210,000 vs. a net loss of 220,000. Cable companies have 72 million broadband subscribers; telcos, 32.9 million.